Harry Reid Should Rise Above Mitt Romney’s Level

Tags

Harry Reid has doubled down on his claim that Mitt Romney has not paid any taxes in a decade. In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Senate Majority Leader reported that someone who invested with Bain Capital told him, “Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.”

This is the third time Reid has repeated the claim and he continues to call on Romney to release his tax returns to refute the rumors. But Reid refuses to name the source who gave him the inside information about the GOP’s presumptive nominee for president.

As you probably know, Mitt Romney is running a scorched-earth campaign for president. Forced to compete with an extremely likable president and stuck with a brand and a set of policies many Americans despise, Mitt decided to run against a fictional version of President Obama that makes sense only to people for whom “news” is inextricable from “Fox.”

To distract from his resemblance to an offensive houseguest telling you how to improve your kitchen’s smell, Romney continually repeats debunked lies about the president. It’s a strategy familiar in political lore, including a famous story about Lyndon Johnson, who supposedly wanted to accuse his opponent of having sex with pigs. “Lyndon, you know he doesn’t do that!” his campaign manager objected. Johnson replied, “Then let the son of a bitch deny it!”

While constantly casting aspersions unworthy of refutation, Mitt refuses to disclose basic information that candidates from both parties have long accepted as standard requirements for anyone applying to become Leader of the Free World. But this week Mitt invented a new qualification for the job: He’s never overpaid his taxes. He told ABC News’ David Muir: “I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president.” But of course, we can’t judge whether he is qualified according to his own new standard, because Mitt still won’t release his tax returns.

So how can America force Mitt Romney to be specific — to produce actual evidence that he’s qualified to be president?

Unfortunately Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has adopted the repellent tactic that worked so well for the birthers.

This is exactly the kind of unsubstantiated hearsay that eventually forced the president to produce his long-form birth certificate (which the craziest birthers still don’t accept). So why not give Reid’s tactic a chance? After all, there’s a simple way for Mitt to refute it.

John Fugelsang has joked that we should call Mitt Romney’s tax returns his “worth certificate” — which would make Harry Reid the chief “worther.”

But this kind of “So when did you stop beating your wife?” politics favors the shameless. And Romney has already proven himself shameless. This sort of politics of hearsay is what’s behind Michele Bachmann’s Muslim witch hunt and all witch hunts of the past.

Harry Reid should elevate himself above the level of Mitt Romney and the loony right. Instead, all of America should ask Romney to prove that he’s qualified to be president, even based on the strange standard that Mitt set for himself.

If more than one constituent reports something to their Senator, should that Senator consistently blow them off as mere hearsay and not present the concerns of his constituents? I wonder about that.

How many GOP Senators and Congressmen stood by Obama and decried the call of the birthers? Some may have said they were inclined to believe Obama was born in Hawaii but they didn’t try to stop the birthers.

Rachel Maddow did as Reid asked of the media and looked into it. She found Romney tried to dismiss the 2002 media with “You’ll have to take my word for it” and when the media didn’t, the media caught Romney lying about his tax returns:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48454163

Romney’s father was the one who said “One (tax) year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show” and he released 12 tax returns show him paying roughly 37% in taxes. His son is defying his own father.

In Rachel’s report, she shows a number of polls representing the public with the heavy majority wanting the tax returns disclosed.

I think Reid, representing his constituents as a Senator, is just one more in a growing chorus.

Oh, bullshit. Elections aren’t games–ask the women who will lose contraception coverage, abortion access, nutrition support for children, etc. if President Romney takes office. The only rules are the ones that all sides mutually honor, or that the referees (voters, in this case) enforce. Otherwise, the side that “rises above” risks losing.

Sorry, but I’m not interested in rooting for a side which plays less than wholeheartedly. There’s too much at stake here for this kind of lopsided bullshit.

Oh, wait — I’ve just looked at the list of contributors. The joke is the Luntz-tested “centrist” bullshit you people have been duped or bribed into pushing at the behest of your betters who are interested only in Republicans regaining full control over the government.

Try harder, your stupidity is showing.

P.S. Why is the assumption that Harry Reid is either lying or wrong anyway? It is not at all unusual for people in Romney’s tax bracket not only to pay no tax but to get a credit refund.

Clearly, I’m smarter than the person who wrote this “featured post,” so can I haz job now?